


on a roll of the dice (a story from floor 6)

by everythingFangirl



Series: when I'm with you, I can only be me (stories from the victors' tower) [10]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Lunch Club, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Flashbacks, Friendship, Gen, Uhhhhhhhh, it takes place in two different times, where do i even put this in the series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-02-22 22:49:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23934958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everythingFangirl/pseuds/everythingFangirl
Summary: Charlie's token is a simple ten-sided wooden die, a small metal loop attached to it which allows it to be threaded onto a necklace. The year he and his friends turned twelve, they had pooled their money together to commission it from a merchant, making a pact: if any of them were ever to be Reaped, that would be the token they would take to the Games.Statistically, there was a chance none of them would ever be chosen; by the time they turned seventeen and only had two years left to go, Charlie was hoping that would be the case. But in the end, he was the one who had to face the Arena.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), nope
Series: when I'm with you, I can only be me (stories from the victors' tower) [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1715008
Comments: 28
Kudos: 113
Collections: victors' tower canon works





	on a roll of the dice (a story from floor 6)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WreakingHavok](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WreakingHavok/gifts).



> I’m back with another Charlie story! This one’s longer, honestly a bit longer than I expected it to get, but yeah. 
> 
> Also, we have 20 works in the collection now! I just wanted to say how much I enjoy every single one of the works you guys have uploaded, I love seeing this universe expand and all of your creative ideas! And, while I’m here, I’ve already commented on basically every chapter of floor 6 but I wanted to just say again how grateful I am to Havok for creating this universe and how much I admire their work <3
> 
> My usual statement applies here, if this crosses any boundaries or makes anyone involved uncomfortable I will take this down.

The common room of floor six is, unsurprisingly, a mess. The sofas and armchairs are scattered in some bizarre configuration, and seemingly every surface that someone isn’t using to sit down is covered in clothes, used dishes, or empty cans of some energy drink that Cooper and Noah are particularly fond of. No matter how much the mess bothers Charlie, though, it’s miles better than the sterile and lifeless rooms he had expected to find when he first arrived here. It’s been almost a year since then, and he likes to think he’s been handling it well.

They weren’t planning to spend the evening together, but after dinner, everyone seemed to have gravitated to the common room individually by some common desire to not be alone tonight. Noah is working on the laptop, Ted has his nose buried in a book, and Cooper and Alex, having commandeered the television screen, are trying (and failing) to play some co-op game. 

“Go that way! No, no, I meant - yes, there, gogogogo - no!”

“You dumbass! I told you, that was the wrong -“

“No, let me do it then, I know that’s the right way -“

“Jesus Christ, I’m trying to work here!”

“You know you’re welcome to leave at any time, Noah.”

Their jabs at each other are joking, as usual, but there’s no missing the restlessness in the air tonight. October is fast approaching, and every single one of them is acutely aware of what that means. For them, for the fragile balance they’ve achieved on floor six, and for twelve teenagers somewhere in Panem, currently blissfully unaware of what’s to come.

In an attempt to distract himself, Charlie had tried to pick up a book or edit a video, but found himself unable to focus on a task for more than a few minutes. So, in lieu of anything better to do, he lays on one of the couches, only half-aware of Cooper and Alex's bickering, and lets his mind wander. The topic that his thoughts land on is no less pleasant than what he’s trying to avoid, though, even if for completely different reasons. Namely, it’s the arena token that still hangs around his neck after all these months.

It’s a simple ten-sided wooden die, a small metal loop attached to it which allows it to be threaded onto a necklace. The year he and his friends turned twelve, they had pooled their money together to commission it from a merchant, making a pact: if any of them were ever to be Reaped, that would be the token they would take to the Arena. 

A ten-sided die, five teenage boys. Statistically, there was a chance none of them would ever be chosen; by the time they turned seventeen and only had two years left to go, Charlie was hoping that would be the case. But in the end, it was only a toss of the dice which one of them would have to face the Arena. 

And the dice had decided it was to be Charlie. 

On the last day he had seen them, the last day of the Victory Tour… Charlie still viscerally remembers the terror in the pit of his stomach, his heart pounding like it wanted to burst out of his chest. What would they think of him now, after everything they’d seen him do? Would they even want him there?

He knew he wouldn’t want him there. 

But after the speech and the formalities were over, he still detached himself from the chattering of his team and the buzzing of attendants and fans and slowly made his way towards their old gathering spot, trying his best to ignore the two Peacekeepers that followed him. His legs felt like they were made of jelly, barely able to support his weight, so he wasn’t sure how he even made it that far, but despite the roaring in his ears he kept going. 

The treehouse in Condi's backyard had almost grown too small for them over the years, but they had still congregated there without fail every chance they got to play tabletop games, chat, or just relax after a school day. It had been a safe haven, until… Charlie tried not to think about the last time he had been there, the last time he had seen his friends, on the day of the reaping. So much had changed since then. Charlie had changed since then. Maybe they wouldn’t even be there... or maybe they would. Charlie didn’t know which option would be worse.

...All four of them were there, at the base of the treehouse, as if they’d been waiting for him. They seemed to be in the middle of some conversation, but stopped abruptly when they heard his footsteps approach. 

There was a moment of silence, in which Charlie took in the faces of his friends. It had been less than a month since he had last seen them, but that felt like a lifetime ago. Upon seeing the shock, wariness and apprehension in their eyes, the knot in his stomach tightened, but… Condi was smiling. 

Not trusting himself to speak, Charlie raised his hand in a small wave.

As if that movement had broken some barrier between then, Grizzly leapt forward, tackling Charlie into a hug. He felt his breath catch in his throat, the fear and tension in his chest dissipating almost instantly, as he struggled to keep his balance.

“I would make a bear hug joke here, but…”

Grizzly laughed right next to his ear, and Charlie hugged him back as tight as he could. 

When Grizzly finally let go, Charlie was accosted by a whirlwind of greetings, hugs and rapid-fire questions from Bizly and Wheatie. He responded as best as he could, slipping far too easily back into their old dynamics, relishing in the familiar cadences of their voices and the simple fact that they were _there_. The fact that they hadn’t given up on him after all. 

Condi was the last to greet him. Their hug was short, but achingly, reassuringly familiar. ”It’s good to see you,” Charlie’s oldest friend said. 

“It’s good to be here.” The smile they shared may have been Charlie’s most genuine one since the Reaping.

There was a lull in the conversation, and Bizly spoke up hesistantly. “I know this might seem like a weird thing to be proud of, but… man. That…”

“After you got that one, we thought…” Wheatie trailed off in the middle of his sentence, but Charlie knew exactly what he was thinking. He had thought that back then, too. 

“But then you won!” Bizly finished. “That’s just… I don’t know if that’s a weird thing to talk about, but…”

That was a question Charlie himself had been pondering. The juxtaposition of those ideas still made his head spin whenever he tried to comprehend them. Rising so high from where he had started out was an achievement, sure, but… contrary to the Capitol’s attitudes, it didn’t feel like something to be proud of, something to celebrate. And Charlie definitely didn’t want to sully this moment with thoughts about that particular topic.

“Yeah, I’d… rather not talk about that.”

“I wish you didn’t have to go through all of this,” Grizzly said quietly. 

For a moment, thery fell into an uncomfortable silence. Charlie couldn’t disagree, but he still winced at what Grizzly's words implied. He would have given almost anything to never have had to go through the Arena, but there was one thing, one single thing, that he never would have agreed to give up. There’s a reason the second half of their pact existed.

Back then, all of them had hated the idea of being in the Games, but there was another thing they would have hated even more: seeing a friend in the Arena, watching him throw away his life for your sake. So, when they were old enough to be Reaped, the day they had got that die, they had all agreed on one thing: none of them would ever volunteer for another, no matter the circumstances. Despite everything, that was one of the few things Charlie didn’t regret. And, regardless of how much he had hated what he had to go through, he found a part of himself almost glad that the Reaping had chosen him and not his friends.

Charlie remembered the die then, the string it was attached to feeling like it was burning against his neck. “Here,” he said, hesitantly removing the necklace and handing it towards Grizzly. “You should have this back.”

“...no.” Grizzly seemed to be avoiding his eyes, suddenly somber again. “Keep it.”

Charlie pulled back his arm in surprise. “Why?”

“We only have a year left. The chances of any of us getting picked again are pretty small. But you’re going away, and, well…” he trailed off. 

Condi finished his sentence for him. “We thought you should have something to remember us by.”

Those words felt so final, so inevitable, and Charlie froze. The realization, which he had been so desperately trying to avoid, hit him all at once like a punch to the stomach: he was never going to see them again. Not in any way that mattered. Maybe he could catch a glimpse of them when he was forced to return to the District to pick up each new year’s unlucky Tribute, but they would never again get to play games together or have hour-long conversations about something incredibly stupid or simply take comfort in each other’s presence and just _be_ \- 

One of the Peacekeepers gave a pointed cough, and Charlie realized with a jolt that he must be running out of time already. He didn’t want to go. He had a million things to say, a million things he wanted to see and to do and to share with his friends, but... the only thing he could think to do was to fall back on what he always did when there was nothing to say. 

Hesitantly, still fiddling with the die between his fingers, he said, “Looks like I’ve gotta roll soon.”

Grizzly chuckled, but it was half-hearted. 

Wordlessly, Condi opened his arms towards Charlie, and he didn’t even hesitate before going in for another hug. He felt Condi’s embrace around him, then Grizzly’s, then Bizly’s, and soon all five of them were together as if nothing had changed, warmth and comfort and _grief_ flooding Charlie’s mind as he struggled to hold back tears. In that moment, he would have given anything, absolutely anything, for that moment to last forever.

But of course, eventually, they separated once again. Charlie stood awkwardly for a moment, not wanting to turn back to the Peacekeepers, not wanting to leave, but...

“I better see you guys in chat once I start streaming, ok?”

“Of course,” Grizzly said, “as often as we can.”

“And…” for a moment, Charlie teetered on the edge of something genuine, something unbelievably sappy, but simply said, “take care of Br’aad for me?” He’d spent years building that character alongside his friends, and knew that playing him would never be quite the same without them. Charlie wouldn't be the same, either.

Bizly chuckled, once again half-heartedly. “You got it.”

Charlie pulled himself together, inhaled to stop the shaking in his limbs and blinked to dispel the tears welling up in his eyes, and smiled. 

He’s spared from having to watch himself turning his back on his friends, watch District 7 fade out of his view for the last time as the train rolls back towards the Capitol, when he’s abruptly jolted back to the present by Cooper throwing down his controller. “I give up. This is hopeless.”

As Alex laughs, Ted chimes in with “Can we do something else? Like, literally anything else.”

Noah sighs, tired and resigned, and shuts the laptop. “Like what?” 

“I have no fucking clue. But I can’t read here while those two are screaming my ears off.” 

The second part of that sentence is unspoken, but all of them know that it’s there. Ted doesn’t want to go back to his room, doesn’t want to be alone with his thoughts. None of them do. The uncomfortable reality of the present settles down on Charlie once again, but an idea sparks in his mind. What they really need now is a distraction… and he might just know what to do. Maybe there was a silver lining to his previous train of thought after all. 

Condi, Grizzly and the others… they already feel so far away. He’d never forget them, could allow himself to forget them, but he has to keep moving. Make the best of what he’s got now. And, watching Cooper and Ted bickering, Alex laughing while trying to calm them down, and Noah good-naturedly rolling his eyes, Charlie thinks that what he has now isn’t so bad.

Upon seeing the mischievous smile spreading across his face, Cooper groans, but Charlie doesn’t miss how the corners of his mouth quirk upwards as well. “Oh no. Charlie’s planning something.”

He’s damn right. “Have you guys ever heard of Dungeons and Dragons?”

**Author's Note:**

> This… got kind of personal halfway through writing it? I’ve moved between countries a lot and had to leave good friends behind, and I’m going to have to do that again this autumn. So, yeah this may have been a bit of a vent. Anyway. 
> 
> For those of you that might not know, Br’aad is Charlie’s D&D character on the podcast he runs with his friends, Just Roll With It. Sorry if the others are a bit out of character here, I’m not as familiar with them, but I wanted to try writing something with them anyway and once I got this idea I couldn’t let it go. 
> 
> I’m already kind of working on another thing for this AU? But I’m honestly not sure if I’ll post it because I don’t want it to feel like I’m stealing certain moments or character arcs from other people who might want to write them. Well, we’ll see where that goes.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
